Many US public parks sit surprisingly close to hazardous waste sites and facilities that release toxic chemicals
While parks, playgrounds and hiking trails are generally thought of as "healthy" spaces, researchers from the University of Michigan have found that many of them overlap with old toxic waste sites or sit dangerously close to facilities that actively release hazardous chemicals. Their new study, published in Scientific Reports, looks at the proximity of 151,366 U.S. public parks to facilities in the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and Superfund sites (SFS).
Toxics Release Inventory facilities and Superfund sites
Facilities in the TRI typically include larger facilities handling manufacturing, metal mining, electric power generation, chemical manufacturing and hazardous waste treatment. These facilities release chemicals that are considered hazardous to human health and may cause "significant adverse environmental effects" and thus must be reported to the EPA.
Superfund sites are severely polluted locations contaminated by hazardous waste, chemicals or toxic materials, including abandoned factories, old mines, landfills and industrial plants. Some of these sites were converted into commercial, recreational, ecological and residential spaces through the Superfund Redevelopment Initiative, launched in 1999.
The authors of the new study write, "There is robust evidence of the adverse health impacts of exposure to environmental hazards. Several studies have found that proximity to industrial facilities, hazardous waste sites and manufacturing plants is related to an increased risk of adverse health outcomes, including birth defects, cardiovascular disease and neurological conditions. While proximity to polluting sites is not an exact proxy for exposure to specific pollutants, epidemiologic studies have found consistent associations between residential proximity to polluting sites and increased risk of cancer, respiratory disease and other adverse health outcomes."
A disturbing overlap
The researchers combined a 2024 national database of public parks, including national parks, hiking trails, state parks and some playgrounds, with EPA records for industrial toxic-release facilities and Superfund sites. They then used mapping software to measure direct overlap and distances of up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers). The study did not test air, water or soil inside the parks for specific pollutants, only proximity to known sites.
The team found that more than half of the 151,366 parks studied, or 52.6%, were within 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of a facility in the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory. Around 9.3% of parks had at least one of these facilities either inside the park or within a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) of its boundary. Specifically, 63 parks contained at least one TRI facility within their boundaries. Among the states, Missouri and Virginia had the most TRI sites located within parks.
They also found that 2,442 parks, or 1.6%, directly overlapped with land at a Superfund hazardous-waste site. Nearly 18% of parks had at least some land within 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of a Superfund site. The team says that only five states had no park land overlapping with Superfund sites: Arkansas, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota and Wyoming. On the other hand, Colorado had the largest amount of total park area that overlapped with Superfund sites, at around 430,610 square miles (1.1 million square kilometers).
Looking at our green spaces differently
Public parks offer clear benefits. They promote physical activity, increase mental well-being, provide shade and house trees that help clean the air. However, a neighborhood park may be both a valuable refuge and part of a landscape shaped by industrial pollution. This study raises questions about the balance of health benefits and risks of detrimental pollution associated with some parks.
The study authors write, "While communities may experience health benefits from parks, our findings indicate that this does not necessarily occur in isolation from heightened pollution exposure. Understanding that parks and polluting sites overlap adds important nuance to public health research on green space. Research that considers parks as a monolithic public health benefit fails to consider the significant overlap between green space and polluting sites in the U.S. and the implications for communities that utilize these parks."
The solution, of course, is not to eliminate or avoid spending time in green spaces, but to increase awareness of potential contamination in parks, which may then lead to cleanup, better monitoring and increased park safety. The team urges others to use its data to improve urban planning for healthier parks, advocate for better environmental remediation and select areas for environmental and community health sampling or studies.
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Publication details
Elliott Chemberlin et al, Proximity of parks to polluting sites in the United States, Scientific Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-65808-7
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Citation: Many US public parks sit surprisingly close to hazardous waste sites and facilities that release toxic chemicals (2026, August 11) retrieved 12 August 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-08-hazardous-sites-facilities-toxic-chemicals.html
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